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Colorado Premium has announced the opening of its third processing facility, the first to specialise in fully cooked sous vide proteins.

Located in Greeley, Colorado, US, the new 175,000-square-foot facility includes space for future expansion. When fully operational, the site will employ up to 275 workers.

The company specialises in processing a range of meat products, including cut meats, raw marinated meats, fresh ground beef, corned beef and cooked meats.

Colorado Premium sells retail and restaurant-ready beef, poultry and various other products under its own brands, as well as distributing to over 75 private-label brands.

Dan LaFleur, president of Colorado Premium, said: “Sous vide cooking has increased in popularity as restaurant operators seek to consistently deliver high-quality products at scale with less reliance on backhouse labour”.

He added: “We have built our business by leveraging our culinary and manufacturing expertise to support our customers’ growth initiatives and this facility provides the capacity to do that for many years to come”.

Zack Henderson, chief revenue officer for Colorado Premium, commented: “Our new facility, with capabilities around searing, par frying and sous vide cooking for all protein types, provides us multiple options to satisfy our customers’ needs”.

Sous vide is a cooking technique involving sealing food in a vacuum and cooking it in a precisely regulated water bath. This low-temperature, long-time cooking method produces unique results which aren’t achievable through other forms of cooking.

The new plant sits on a 20-acre site that Colorado Premium purchased in 2022 and reconfigured for the sous vide and raw processing production lines.

The company’s headquarters and main production facility are in Greeley, and a third processing facility operates in Denver, Colorado. Colorado Premium currently employs more than 700 workers.